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Reorp;anizinp[   the    Criminal    Courts 

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REORGANIZING  THE  CRIMINAL  COURTS. 


NOT  long  ago  a  poor  Italian  who  spoke  little  English  was 
arraigned  before  a  city  magistrate  on  the  charge  of 
having  stolen  a  bottle  of  milk.  The  man  pleaded  guilty 
and  on  investigation  it  developed  that  he  stole  because 
he  was  actually  starving  and  his  children  were  starving. 

The  magistrate,  however,  could  do  nothing  but  commit  the  man 
to  jail  to  be  held  for  trial  later  on  by  the  Court  of  Special  Ses- 
sions, because  the  law  does  not  give  to  the  magistrates  the  right 
to  dispose  of  such  cases. 

The  man  was  sent  to  jail  and  while  he  was  there  two  of  his 
children,  who  had  been  left  without  support,  died,  and  their  father 
was  not  even  able  to  attend  the  funeral. 

There  are  hundreds  of  cases  like  this,  not  all  perhaps  so  path- 
etic, occuring  every  day  in  the  Magistrates'  Courts  of  this  great 
city. 

Is  this  an  efficient  way  of  dealing  with  criminal  offenses?  In 
the  first  place,  great  and  unnecessary  suffering  was  visited  upon 
this  man  without  any  good  to  the  community  and  with  great  harm 
to  him.  In  the  second  place,  the  taxpayers  were  compelled  to  bear 
an  unnecessary  burden  in  maintaining  him  in  the  city  prison  for 
some  time,  when  he  might  have  been  discharged  at  once  had  the 
magistrate  been  given  power  to  deal  with  such  cases. 

How  many  citizens  of  New  York  are  aware  of  the  fact  that  in 
all  cases  like  this,  that  is,  cases  involving  a  misdemeanor,  under 
the  present  system  there  has  to  be  what  amounts  practically  to  a 
double  trial  in  every  case;  first  a  trial  before  the  magistrate  when 
all  the  facts  are  gone  into,  witnesses  examined,  etc.,  and  then  if 
the  magistrate  does  not  discharge  the  prisoner,  a  second  trial  be- 
fore the  Court  of  Special  Sessions,  sometimes  after  a  delay  of 
several  weeks? 

Is  this  duplication  of  the  work  of  arraignment,  examination 
and  trial  in  repressing  and  punishing  crime  in  New  York  neces- 
sary ?  Is  there  not  a  glaring  economic  and  social  waste  in  the  en- 


forcement  of  the  criminal  law?  Are  not  the  citizens  being  unduly 
taxed  because  of  these  lost  motions? 

Even  cases  of  the  most  trivial  kind,  if  they  involve  a  misdemean- 
or, cannot  be  disposed  of  by  magistrates.  A  man  who  has  his  dog 
stolen,  for  example,  in  attending  the  trial  in  the  magistrate's  court 
loses  one  day  of  his  time  and  then  if  the  prisoner  is  found  guilty, 
loses  considerable  time  after  the  examination  in  another  court. 
Similarly,  the  time  of  at  least  one  policeman  is  lost  to  the  city  for 
two,  three  or  more  days. 

Delay  is  a  danger  to  the  law  but  is  a  delight  to  the  criminal. 

Take  the  case  of  a  pickpocket  out  on  bail :  Under  the  present 
system,  if  the  complainant  is  a  citizen,  the  first  effort  is  to  find 
him  and  buy  him  off  or  bully  him ;  give  him  back  twice  the  amount 
of  money  if  necessary  to  stay  away  or  threaten  him  with  bodily 
injury  from  the  gang  if  he  won't. 

Often  in  the  magistrates'  courts  a  pickpocket  charged  with  jostl- 
ing will  put  up  as  much  as  $2,500  cash  bail  rather  than  to  be  tried 
before  a  magistrate  who  he  fears  will  give  him  the  limit  of  the 
law. 

The  same  thing  is  true  of  many  other  offenders.  These  go 
down  in  a  long,  unending  procession  to  the  Special  Sessions 
Court  to  crowd  the  congested  Calendars  and  add  needlessly  to  the 
expense  of  the  taxpayers. 

Three  years  ago  great  reforms  were  brought  about  in  the 
magistrates'  courts  of  the  city  so  that  they  now  stand  in  both 
dignity  and  importance  on  the  same  plane  as  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  State. 

The  Committee  on  Criminal  Courts  of  the  Charity  Organiza- 
tion Society,  a  group  of  disinterested  citizens  who  are  keenly 
interested  in  the  welfare  of  the  poor  man's  court,  realizing  that 
it  is  from  these  courts  that  large  numbers  of  our  citizens,  es- 
pecially our  newly  arrived  citizens,  receive  their  standards  of 
American  justice  and  law,  believes  that  the  time  has  come  when 
the  next  step  should  be  taken  in  making  these  courts  that  instru- 
ment of  justice  that  they  were  intended  to  be. 

The  Committee,  after  years  of  close  observations  and  sympa- 
thetic study,  has  developed,  therefore,  a  plan  for  important 
changes  which  will  do  away  with  the  defects  that  are  now  appar- 


cnt.  This  plan  contemplates  the  establishment  of  one  court  of  in- 
ferior criminal  jurisdiction  for  the  whole  city,  with  as  many 
parts  or  divisions  as  may  be  necessary  to  fulfill  its  purposes. 

WHAT  IS  PROPOSED. 

The  essential  points  of  this  plan  are  as  follows : 

1.  Give  to  the  magistrates  the  power  to  dispose  of  cases  in- 
volving misdemeanors.    In  other  words,  enable  the  magistrates  to 
sit  as  Justices  of  Courts  of  Special  Sessions,  just  as  a  Justice  of 
the  Peace  does  now  in  every  County  of  the  State  outside  of 
Greater  New  York  and  as  the  magistrates  in  New  York  City  did 
about  twenty  years  ago. 

2.  Preserve  to  the  offender  the  right  to  be  tried  by  a  court  of 
three  judges  if  he  so  desires ;  in  such  event  the  prisoner  to  be  held 
for  a  Trial  Term  of  the  Court. 

3.  Give  to  the  District  Attorney  the  right  to  interpose  an  ob- 
jection to  the  trial  by  a  single  magistrate  of  any  case  where  in 
the  opinion  of  the  District  Attorney  the  case  should  be  tried  by 
a  court  of  three  judges. 

Under  these  changes  it  is  believed  that  at  least  90  per  cent,  of 
the  cases  which  now  involve  a  double  trial  will  be  promptly  dis- 
posed of  by  the  magistrate  thus  eliminating  double  trials,  reduc- 
ing the  congestion  in  the  city  prisons,  and  saving  the  time  of  citi- 
zens, policemen  and  other  city  employees,  and  reducing  the  ex- 
penses of  government  materially. 

It  will  also  put  an  end  to  the  frequent  miscarriage  of  justice 
which  now  takes  place  because  of  the  opportunity  for  witnesses 
evaporating  or  being  tampered  with  between  the  time  of  the  orig- 
inal trial  in  the  magistrates'  court  and  the  second  trial  some  weeks 
later  in  the  Court  of  Special  Sessions. 

It  will  also  do  away  with  the  special  bureau  of  the  District  At- 
torney's office  known  as  the  Special  Sessions  Information  Bureau, 
which  now  costs  the  city  from  $25,000  to  $30,000  a  year  and 
which  serves  no  useful  purpose  and  congests  the  Tombs  and  the 
Calendar. 

Under  the  present  plan  by  which  the  District  Attorney  is  em- 
powered to  interpose  an  objection  to  a  case  being  disposed  of 


by  a  magistrate,  the  interests  of  the  community  are  fully  protected 
at  every  point. 

A  NEW  FUNCTIONAL  COURT. 

The  functional  courts  established  three  years  ago,  namely,  the 
Court  of  Domestic  Relations  and  the  Night  Court  for  Women, 
the  latter  constituting  a  social  evil  court,  have  proved  so  great 
a  success  that  it  has  seemed  to  be  advantageous  to  consider  a 
further  development  in  this  direction  and  provide  an  additional 
functional  court,  namely,  a  Departmental  or  Municipal  division, 
in  which  can  be  heard  those  cases  where  the  various  city  depart- 
ments and  branches  of  the  city  government  are  bringing  actions 
for  the  enforcement  of  various  statutes  and  ordinances. 

At  the  present  time  such  cases  are  brought  in  the  ordinary  dis- 
trict magistrates'  courts  scattered  throughout  the  city.  The  re- 
sult is  that  they  congest  the  courts  unduly  and  at  the  same  time 
they  do  not  have  the  attention  given  to  them  which  the  heads  of 
departments  would  desire  and  which  the  magistrates  would  wish 
to  give  to  such  important  laws.  Moreover,  the  time  of  inspectors 
of  the  various  city  departments  and  other  witnesses  is  now  very 
materially  wasted,  as  they  have  to  sit  in  court  all  day  until  cer- 
tain classes  of  cases  are  disposed  of. 

The  result  is  that  when  these  cases,  involving  as  they  do  highly 
technical  questions,  are  heard  they  are  heard  without  the  consid- 
eration which  they  ought  to  have. 

A  MUNICIPAL  DIVISION  PROPOSED. 

It  is  proposed,  therefore,  to  establish  a  Municipal  Division  of 
the  Magistrates'  Court  in  which  all  such  cases  can  be  heard,  locat- 
ed as  it  would  be,  in  a  central  location  down  town,  with  a  branch 
in  each  of  the  boroughs  as  may  be  needed,  with  judges  assigned 
to  the  court  with  special  qualifications,  the  establishment  of  this 
court  will  prove  a  great  benefit  to  the  city. 

Under  such  a  plan  regular  Calendars  could  be  prepared  and 
definite  days  assigned  each  week  to  the  hearing  of  cases  involv- 
ing different  departments,  as,  for  instance,  on  Mondays  Health 
Department  cases,  on  Tuesdays  Building  Department  cases,  on 


Wednesdays  Fire  Department  cases,  on  Thursdays  Factory  De- 
partment cases,  etc.,  with  great  economies  of  times  resulting  to 
litigants,  attorneys  and  taxpayers,  and  especially  to  municipal 
employees. 

The  judges  assigned  to  these  courts  would  in  a  short  time  be- 
come familiar  with  the  very  technical  laws  which  they  are  called 
upon  to  interpret  and  the  Corporation  Counsel  and  District  At- 
torney would  be  able  to  assign  to  such  a  court  assistants  who 
could  specialize  upon  these  statutes. 

The  opinion  of  every  head  of  department  affected  by  such  a 
change  has  been  sought  as  to  the  desirability  of  this  change  and 
the  plan  has  received  the  unanimous  endorsement  of  every  head 
of  the  city  departments  as  well  as  of  the  Corporation  Counsel  and 
others  whose  work  has  given  them  great  familiarity  with  the  de- 
fects of  the  present  system. 

A  SEPARATE  CHILDREN'S  COURT. 

For  a  long  time  there  has  been  a  very  widespread  feeling  in  the 
community  that  the  Children's  Court  should  be  entirely  distinct 
in  its  management  from  any  other  court.  At  the  present  time  it  is 
a  part  of  the  Court  of  Special  Sessions  and  the  justices  presiding 
over  it  are  assigned  to  this  court  by  the  Chief  Justice  of  the  Court 
of  Special  Sessions  and  the  assignments  are  liable  to  be  changed 
from  year  to  year.  Similarly  the  clerks,  probation  officers  and 
other  employees  are  likewise  assigned  and  the  control  of  the 
clerks,  probation  officers  and  other  employees  is  vested,  not  in  the 
justices  assigned  to  the  Children's  Court,  but  in  the  whole  group 
of  Special  Sessions  judges,  the  majority  of  whom  are  not  familiar 
with  the  needs  of  that  court  because  they  do  not  sit  there. 

The  result  has  not  proved  satisfactory  in  every  respect.  This 
Court  is  a  most  important  one.  The  belief  has  become  wide- 
spread that  a  better  administration  would  follow  a  complete  sepa- 
ration of  the  Children's  Court  from  all  other  parts  so  far  as  it  is 
legally  possible  to  bring  this  about. 

For  constitutional  reasons  the  Children's  Court  must  continue 
to  be  a  Court  of  Special  Sessions  using  the  term  in  its  legal  sig- 
nificance but  there  is  no  reason  why  the  justices  of  that  court 


8 

should  not  be  assigned  to  it  permanently  and  should  not  have 
complete  control  of  the  affairs  of  the  court. 

Under  the  plan  developed  by  this  Committee  that  is  contem- 
plated. The  Mayor  is  to  select  four  judges  out  of  the  present 
justices  (and  it  is  hoped  that  he  will  select  the  present  judges 
assigned  to  the  Children's  Court)  and  appoint  them  as  Children's 
Court  judges  for  a  definite  term.  These  judges  will  then  elect 
a  Chief  Justice  and  the  Board  of  Justices  thus  constituted  will 
control  all  affairs  of  the  court. 

To  carry  out  these  ideas  a  bill  has  been  prepared  by  this  Com- 
mittee and  has  been  introduced  in  the  Legislature  by  Senator 
Patten,  Senate  Int.,  No.  1021. 

WHAT  THE  BILL  DOES. 

1.  The  bill  enacts  a  new  Inferior  Courts  Act  and  repeals  out- 
right the  present  law,  taking  over  into  the  new  act,  however,  all 
those  parts  of  the  present  law  which  have  proved  to  be  valuable. 

2.  The  Court  of  Special  Sessions  and  the  Magistrates'  Courts 
of  the  two  Divisions  are  all  merged  into  one  City  Magistrates' 
Court  with  full  powers  of  a  court  of  special  sessions. 

3.  All    existing   Magistrates   and   Justices   of  the   Court   of 
Special  Sessions  and  all  employees  of  such  courts  are  continued 
in  office  for  the  balance  of  their  unexpired  term  at  the  same  sal- 
aries and  in  the  same  positions  as  at  present.     No  change  what- 
ever is  made  with  regard  to  any  of  them. 

4.  The  Justices  of  the  Court  of  Special  Sessions  now  in  office 
have  conferred  upon  them  the  powers  of  City  Magistrates  and  the 
City  Magistrates  now  in  office  have  conferred  upon  them  the 
power  of  Justices  of  the  Court  of  Special  Sessions. 

5.  All  of  these  Magistrates  and  Justices  constitute  one  Board 
of  City  Magistrates,  with  a  Chief  Magistrate  to  be  appointed  by 
the  Mayor  from  among  their  number. 

6.  Each  one  of  these  Magistrates  will  have  power  to  dispose 
of  all  cases  of  misdemeanors  and  for  that  purpose  to  sit  as  a 
Justice  of  the  Court  of  Special  Sessions  except  where  the  prisoner 
requests  to  be  tried  by  three  judges  or  except  where  the  District 
Attorney  makes  similar  request. 

7.  The  following  Parts  of  the  City  Magistrates'  Court  will  be 
held: 


1.  The  District  Courts  as  at  present. 

2.  The  Domestic  Relations  Courts  as  at  present. 

3.  The  Night  Courts  for  Men  and  Women  as  at  present. 

4.  The  Municipal   Division   for  trial  of  criminal  cases 
where  the  City  Departments  are  complainants  and  with  power 
to  inflict  civil  penalties  and  to  sit  as  a  Court  of  Special  Ses- 
sions with  criminal  jurisdiction. 

5.  A  Trial  Division  with  separate  court  room  and  organ- 
ization after  the  analogy  of  the  Appellate  Division  of  the 
Supreme  Court.    This  Trial  Division  to  be  presided  over  by 
three  judges,  to  be  assigned  for  a  term  of  one  year  by  the 
Chief  City  Magistrate.     To  be  as  many  parts  of  this  court 
in  different  boroughs  as  may  be  necessary. 

6.  The  Children's  Court.    A  separate  court  with  power  of 
a  Court  of  Special  Sessions  and  with  a  separate  organization, 
presided  over  by  a  board  of  four  or  more  judges,  with  a 
Chief  Judge,  with  practically  one  judge  assigned  to  perma- 
nent work  in  each  of  the  different  boroughs. 

8.  Power  is  given  to  the  Magistrates  to  establish  additional 
functional  courts  as  may  be  necessary.  If  it  should  seem  wise  to 
establish  an  Automobile  or  Speed  Court  it  can  be  done  by  the 
magistrates.  Similarly  if  it  should  be  deemed  wise  to  establish 
a  court  for  Minors. 


From  all  of  this  it  is  believed  there  should  result  great  econo- 
mies of  time  to  litigants,  attorneys  and  city  employees  and  relief 
of  congestion  in  the  Tombs,  the  overcrowding  of  Calendars  in 
Magistrates'  and  Municipal  Courts,  and  a  direct  saving  of  salaries 
of  these  officers,  and  that  there  will  result  especially  a  speedier 
determination  of  causes  and  a  doing  away  with  the  opportunities 
which  now  exist  for  the  defeat  of  justice  through  tampering  with 
witnesses  and  in  other  ways. 

Speedy  justice  is  the  best  justice.  The  crv  of  the  day  is  against 
the  law's  delays. 


THE  COMMITTEE  ON  CRIMINAL  COURTS 

of 

THE  CHARITY  ORGANIZATION  SOCIETY  OF  THE  CITY  OF 
NEW  YORK. 


BRONSON   WINTHROP,   Chairman 

OTTO  T.  BANNARD 

ROBERT  W.  DE  FOREST 

VICTOR  J.  BOWLING 

HOMER  FOLKS 

JOHN  M.  GLENN 

FREDERICK  TREVOR  HILL 

RALPH  K.  JACOBS 

GEORGE  W.  KIRCHWEY 

PHILIP  J.  McCooK 

JULIUS  M.  MAYER 

MORGAN  J.  O'BRIEN 

ALFRED  R.  PAGE 

ALTON  B.  PARKER 

FRANK  L.  POLK 

EZRA  P.  PRENTICE 

GEORGE  W.  SCHURMAN 

NATHAN  A.  SMYTH 

HENRY  W.  THURSTON 

LAWRENCE  VEILLER 

STAFF 

LAWRENCE  VEILLER,  Secretary 
JOSEPH  T.  WILLIAMS,  Associate  Secretary 
GEORGE  EVERSON,  Assistant  Secretary 

105  East  22nd  Street,  New  York  City. 
March  9,  1914. 

LAW  LIBRARY 

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